THE SHARKS were circling at the Coventry & District Championships held over three days in Nuneaton as the Stratford swimmers certainly proved they mean business this season.
This was an opportunity, at the start of the season, for Stratford Sharks’ performance swimmers to measure themselves against the best in the area and they turned on the style to record 243 personal best times.
The girls swam to an awesome 18 first places and 21 second places, whilst the boys secured a superb 30 firsts and 24 seconds.
‘All-time’ club records went to Elinor Bird, Isabelle Callaghan and Thomas Beamer, whilst Nathaniel Francis swam under one minute for the first time in the 100m freestyle and Daniel Cox and Nick Evans totally dominated all the breaststroke distances as a ‘fear of the Sharks’ was firmly established.
Specialist butterfly swimmers Adam Nash and Georgina Mitchell continued the stream of success as both struck gold and the 400m freestyle and medley endurance events produced yet more silverware for the Sharks, further personal bests, more Midland qualifying times and club records.
Chris Clements shrugged off a weekend of hard swimming to claim a phenomenal six-second PB in the 400m freestyle.
“It was all the hard swim training we’ve been doing in T-shirts and drag shorts,” said Clements. “It really paid off and I felt incredibly strong in the water.”
Ailsa Gavan-McHarg, the girls’ club captain, added: “It’s been a great start to the new season. We are looking forward to making further progress over the coming months.”
FOUR Sharks members took time out of their busy lives to pass ASA (Amateur Swimming Association) judging qualifications.
Julie Cox and Catherine Penny achieved ASA judge level 2 and Emma Bexson and Helen Evans ASA judge level 1.
“It’s a real commitment to competition swimming in the Midlands and I take my hat off to them,” said membership secretary Graham Hopper.
